


Occam’s/Arkham’s razor (O/AR)

by Para2ol (Parasolvig)



Category: Hermitcraft RPF
Genre: Chaos. Utter bedlam, Gen, Having watched YHS while it was being uploaded the guy’s got issues, OOC, Sam isn’t the villain, Some Swearing, Speaking about Sam as a character btw, The Cthulhu tag is not a joke, The listeners are evil, There are actually no fics where Sam is a good guy, Watcher Grian, Watcher Taurtis, Watchers are good, Weird Time Shit, You might think it is but it WILL make sense, but like y’all don’t even give him a chance, by me, for once, grian is the reincarnation of an Eldritch god, minecraft personas ONLY, please just hear me out it makes sense, trust me - Freeform, unbeta’d
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-11
Updated: 2020-11-27
Packaged: 2021-03-02 18:07:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 18
Words: 11,992
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24121081
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Parasolvig/pseuds/Para2ol
Summary: Grian is in trouble ( when isn’t he, though ), Watchers are nice, everyone has braincells, & I use an oc as a major character.( Written in fic format for the first 17 chapters, then finished in bullet point format on the 18th chapter. )
Relationships: Charles | Grian & GoodTimesWithScar, Charles | Grian & Original Character(s), Charles | Grian & Sam England, Charles | Grian & Steffen Mossner | Docm77, Charles | Grian & Taurtis, Grian/Cthulhu (past)
Comments: 32
Kudos: 126





	1. What’s up guys, Cthulhu here with lo-fi beats to ruin a universe to

**Author's Note:**

> None of this is written in advance, this is really just me winging it through my first fanfiction
> 
> ( if you want to skip the backstory go to chapter 7 )

Time.

Space.

Flight.

Watching.

A long time ago ( but really, not long ago at all ) Three friends had gone to high school, & destroyed the multiverse in which they live, dooming them all to a fate of loneliness.

But, considering you have full knowledge of who, exactly, these three friends are, you know that this story does not end here.

You see, along the way to the accidental destruction of their universe, they had awakened an Eldritch god.

Cthulhu. 

Now, as the days went by, loneliness had stared to consume the three high-schoolers minds. So they made a deal. Cthulhu could take their memories & lock them away, & in return, they could be granted a new life in another world. Cthulhu had graciously accepted the mortals offer.

They were transported to a new world ( which, Chronologically, took place before the first world, but time works differently for a god than mortals. )

Upon arriving in the new world, however, of our heroes noticed something.

He remembered everything. From the mafia, to the destruction of the universe, the deal. He had also been granted magic by the Eldritch being himself.

He ( well, he does have a name, it’s Grian. The other two heroes names, as you most likely have figured out, are Taurtis & Sam. ) also had the ability to steal magic from others. However, the others seemed to not remember, so he never mentioned it. The three went on their adventure. Everything was fine, & he had a lot of fun.

Then the two incidents that would ruin his life happened. The first was an indescribable tragedy that left him with trauma ( in more ways than one ) & an undying hatred for anything even similar to a rat.

The second... well.

Let’s say that after his queen was murdered in cold blood, not a single living thing on that world was left alive. He could feel his friends were alive, he had sent them to somewhere else. But during his rampage against the kingdom, he gained two things.

A title: The bloodstained mage.

And indescribable power. In this state, he could be compared to an Eldritch being on par with Cthulhu, the spawn of his powers.

Cthulhu, noticing this, made him a deal. Abandon this world, & they could live together, not a care in the world. As partners.

Grian would’ve given anything to leave this horrid world. He accepted without a second thought.

The two beings of unimaginable terror & horror lived together happily, in friendship, &, eventually, even more. But the horrid memories of the medieval world had never left Grians life. He had wanted to find way to rid himself of them.

However, there was only a single way to grant his wish.

Reincarnation.

He learned of this fact, & was torn. His love, or the ridding of those memories. However, after a long battle in his thoughts, he decided. He told his lover of the spell, & his decision. He did however, ask for his lover to help him in the spell, & for him to watch over his reincarnated soul & body.

Cthulhu, this time, was the one who accepted readily.

After some preparation, everything was ready. The spell, the world in which he would reincarnate, the place where his current vessel would be stored, everything. All that was left to do was enact the ritual, & be reborn anew.

With a final kiss to Cthulhu, Grian readied the ritual, & felt everything w a s h a w a y .


	2. Geez, Grian! How come Parasol let’s you have TWO backstories?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I promise we’re getting to the hermits soon, just wait.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Side note: I’ve never watched EVO so most of this is just headcannony bullshit

A world, sent back in time, watched by people to make sure nothing went wrong.

Grian, the one we know & love today, opened his eyes, with no memories of anything previous to this moment in his life, in this world. He slowly sat up to look at his surroundings.

He was on a beach. A light breeze, which he could hear sift through the trees, complimented the soft break of the waves on the shore. He saw that inland, there was a forest. He couldn’t see the other end of the island from where he sat.

He noticed something else, too. He wasn’t alone.

Some distance away, he could see a man in a blue shirt & headphones ( a very familiar man, might I add ) walking towards him.

“Hi! My name’s Taurtis. What’s yours?”

“Oh! Um... my name’s Grian.”

The man ( Taurtis ) smiled. He reached out to lift him up from Grian’s sitting position on the beach.

“Do you want to come with me to me & my friends’ base?”

“Yes, thank you.”

Along the way to Taurtis’ base, Grian learned a few things. One, Taurtis & his friends were called the evolutionists. Two, Taurtis also couldn’t remember his previous life before coming here. Three, they were guided by powerful beings who called themselves Watchers.

He arrived at the base, & lots of fun was had that day. They accepted Grian with welcome arms into their group. They all had lots of fun, playing pranks, starting a mafia, playfully disobeying the Watchers ( well, that one was just him, but- ), everything was great.

Then Taurtis had to leave. He said he had a mission to go on, & that he would see them all again someday. Grian didn’t leave his house for a week after that. But he eventually moved on, & learned to embrace this world with his friends.

But all things must come to a close, eventually.

He had just killed the enderdragon, when—

“Hello there, Grian.”

A tall being in a hooded robe appeared. Half of their face was covered by a mask that showed a singular eye, that looked down upon him. The other half was covered by their bangs. The figure held a mischievous smile.

“Who are you?”

“My name is Voster, & you have been selected to become a Watcher.”

“What? By who? Does this mean I’ll have to leave my friends?”

“You’ve been selected by me & another watcher. Sadly, you shall have to leave your friends behind, but you may still visit them from time to time.”

“Do I even get a say in this? You can’t just take me from my friends!”

The figure ( Voster ) sighed. He closed his one eye thoughtfully.

“You need to accept this deal, or this world may become unstable & collapse. There is nothing that can be done about that. You need to become a watcher.”

“I... alright. I accept your deal.”

He shook hands with the figure, & was transported to a strange place of floating islands. There he saw the one person he never thought he would see again.

Taurtis.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Do note I’m going to skip over what happens in season 6 for plot reasons but I will make slight mentions to it,, nothing of significant plot importance tho
> 
> The non backstory chapters will probably be in 2nd person since that’s just how I normally write
> 
> Okay the backstory is longer than 2 chapters I’m sorry it just happens dw it’ll probably be wrapped up by chapter three
> 
> Also Voster looks like this https://para2ol.tumblr.com/post/617831015871856640/oc-for-hermitcraft-fanfiction-on-ao3-its-called


	3. I’m not having a good day just let me write fluff in PEACE

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Still more backstory... ( I promise we’re getting to the actual plot soon )

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey uhh I’m sorry for not updating in a week,,, school n’ shit, y’know? I’ll try to update at least once a week though

Grian ran to give Taurtis a hug upon seeing him.

“Taurtis! Where have you been?! We’ve all missed you back on evo!”

Taurtis groaned from the force of Grian hitting him ( he’s small, but he can really hurt someone when he wants to ) before responding.

“Well, it’s not as if I didn’t want to see you guys. I was training to be a watcher! & now I get to train with you, Grian!”

Grian finally let go of Taurtis, before turning to Voster.

“Hey, why were only me & Taurtis chosen to be watchers? Why wasn’t anyone else chosen?”

“Well, you two seemed to be favored by our god, so that was why I chose you two. He always talked about you in his meetings with me.”

Grian & Taurtis both looked at Voster, confused. They both asked in unison-

“Wait, why would your god be interested in us? Who is your god?”

“I’m not able to answer those questions, but I can take you two to see him. Would that be alright? I can ask him right now about scheduling a meeting.”

“That would be great! Thank you.” Taurtis replied. Voster nodded & left to call their god, whoever it was.

“So, Grian. Tell me what’s happened since I left!”

The two went into Taurtis’ room to talk about their adventures since last seeing each other.

Shortly after, they both fell asleep, on the floor, too tired to get onto the bed. It was a long day for both of them.

Voster has just come back from the call with Cthulhu ( Though Grian & Taurtis didn’t know that yet ) & saw the two friends on the floor. They softly chuckled, closed the door, & went to bed themselves.

The next day, Taurtis & Grian woke up feeling sore & hungry.

“Ugh, well, that’s what we get for sleeping on the floor, huh, Taurtis?” They both laughed, & Taurtis led Grian to the kitchen.

Voster was already there, looking well rested. They were in a more casual outfit than the robes they usually wore. Grian also noticed they had four wings, all a deep purple, with yellow runes adorning the feathers.

“Hmm, it’s about time you two woke up! It’s nearly eleven! Well, I guess it was a long day for you both last night, so I’ll excuse it this time, but I won’t be so lenient next time!”

“Sorry, Voster. Anyways, what are you making for breakfast? Today’s Grian’s first day as a watcher, so it better be good!” Taurtis said. Grian was excited to see what all this watcher training was, & who the god of the watchers was.

“Uhm, Voster...”

“Yes? What would you like for breakfast? I’m making Taurtis & myself some eggs & bacon today.”

“That sounds nice, I’ll have some too. Anyways, the question I was going to ask was when we were going to meet your god?”

“Hmm. We talked, & he’ll take you two for a meeting in two weeks. Anyways, Taurtis, please educate him on how you two will train while I make breakfast.”

Taurtis took Grian’s hand & led him to the main room.

“Okay Grian, so watcher is basically what sounds like. Training to become a full fledged watcher. Voster is one of them, a higher watcher who works closely with their god, which is why he has two pairs of wings. All watchers get them.”

“Yeah, but how do we train? How do we get wings? Why do you & Voster also have horns?”

“Oh, these?” Taurtis pointed to little nubs on top of his head. “These develop as you become more experienced in the watcher field. You’ll get them too. & how we train is a little complicated. There are two parts to it. The first part is more physical training. Making sure we’re in shape to properly take care of worlds. The other part is more fun, though. We get to travel with Voster to go to other worlds & watch over them!”

“Oh wow, that’s a lot of information to take in. When will my horns grow in? I’d like to fly someday, too. It sounds like a lot of fun. Where is this place, anyway?”

“Of right, I forgot you haven’t left the house since you got here! Well, we’re in a place called the Aether, far above the worlds Voster watches over. It’s mostly made up of floating islands, so we’re given elytra to fly until we grow wings of our own. This house is on a floating island, in fact! Oh, but I think that’ll be where our discussion ends for now. I smell breakfast. Let’s not keep Voster waiting.”

They left towards the kitchen, with Grian excited to start his training as a watcher.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I felt bad today so it’s all fluff sorry ( not really. )
> 
> Also the ending is abrupt because I want to distinguish fluff & more plot heavy chapters ( though this doubles as both I guess )


	4. Tea time with Cthulhu: And other classics, only on Parasol network

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Next chapter is the big meeting with the Eldritch god himself
> 
> Cliffhangers are never fun, I only put them in because I can’t write so much in a single chapter, welp

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I need you to understand that I’m trying to get to the hermits but the backstory c a l l s t o m e
> 
> Also the pacing is fucked in this one sry :/

Today was.

Well.

Exciting, to say the least.

Grian has just finished breakfast with Voster & Taurtis, & was ready as ever to start watcher training. He was really excited to go outside as well.

He just wasn’t expecting the robes.

Voster had gently explained that all watchers needed to wear robes in order to better use their magic powers. ( They had also shown him where his room is, right next to Taurtis’ room. He didn’t know how he hadn’t noticed it last night. )

Which, in all honesty, sounded like utter bullshit, but go off, i guess.

At least Taurtis had to wear the stupid things too. At last, he could finally go outside! Start using magic! Meet other people ( maybeeee??? ).

It was quite a simple set of training sessions to keep them occupied until the watcher god could go meet them, or whatever. All they had to do was start to use entry level magic & learn the basics of Elytra gliding ( flying would come later ). He had asked Taurtis why he had to do it also, since he had been under Voster’s tutelage for some time before meeting him again. Taurtis simply shrugged, looked away & said, “Well... I’m not as good as flying as one would think.” To which he had simply laughed & jokingly teased him about it.

It wasn’t as hard as one would think. The magic just... sort of came naturally to Grian. It was as if he had always been magical & had the talent for it, unlike Taurtis who was... struggling, in comparison.

Flying was mostly the same, but Taurtis could give Grian a run for his money occasionally. 

It was fun, & Grian could see his & Taurtis’ horns growing in, & felt a sense of pride. They were small, but they would grow nicely.

& so the two trained, until the day of the meeting. Voster had asked them to dress nicely ( as they had provided clothes in their rooms. ) for the occasion, themselves dressed very nicely, in an antiquated outfit that suited them. They however, did not remove their mask or hide their wings because “Watchers need to have them on at all times when meeting him, & I’m not an exception, G.”.

They all were teleported to a room, with obvious gothic & Victorian influences. The whole room had a sort of... darkness, to it, in a way. It was littered with objects, many of questionable origin. The room had a giant window, almost the size of an entire side of the room, which oversaw the entire floating archipelago center city for the watchers. There was also a table, & on the side furthest from them, stood a man-like creature in a suit, who seemed to be part squid.

This man seemed _very_ familiar to Grian.

“Hello.” The apparent God of the watchers said, & his voice seemed to echo off the walls, a deep, powerful, rumble.

“Hello to you too, Cthulhu. I brought the two I’m training currently, would you like to talk with them separately, or...?” Voster, who seemed to be rather calm for someone who is talking to the very being they worship, spoke.

“I’ll talk to the one you first took in first. I’ll talk to your more recent trainee after that.”

“Okay, then. Taurtis, would you please follow him into the other room? Grian, you can stay here with me.”

“Wha-? Ok... uhm, see you later, Grian.” Taurtis left to go with Cthulhu, whose name he just learned.

“Grian, do you like the capital so far? I know you’ve only seen his room, but there’s a lot this place has. I’ll take you here once you both gain your proper wings.”

“I can’t say a lot about it, but it looks very nice, from what I can see through the window.”

“It’s very nice, I can tell you that much. I’ll tell you more about it when we get back home.”

With that, the two waited in a comfortable silence until Taurtis returned.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Pls comment cause I like interacting with you all
> 
> ( side note I keep accidentally writing in second person gOD D A M N I T )


	5. Tfw you talk to ur boss who is also your past incarnation’s lover like-

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I might get to hermits next chapter, we’ll see.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Turns out I still suck at pacing, fuck me

Taurtis eventually came out of the meeting room, looking as if he had just realized something eye opening. ( which, considering he was talking Cthulhu, was more than likely. )

“Well, I guess it’s time for you to go meet him, then. I’ll watch over Taurtis while you talk to him.” Voster led Grian to the room, as he was too nervous to do it himself. Grian shut the door behind him after saying a quick goodbye to Voster, & turned towards the middle of the room, where Cthulhu sat.

“Hello, Grian. Please, do take a seat, I don’t want you to be uncomfortable.”

“H-hello, Cthulhu. Why did you want to talk to me?” He asked as he sat down, fidgeting with his clothes.

“Well, I’m going to tell you some shocking news, that I had also told your friend.”

“What is it?” Okay, he was nervous before, but now terror shot through his veins like ice. What was the news? What was it?

“You, Grian, along with your friends, are the products of an amnesia reincarnation spell. You are the reborn person of a very powerful sorcerer.”

“What? How did I lose my memories? Can I ever gain them again? And what do you mean friend _s_? There’s only Taurtis.”

“Ah, about that, let me explain.” Cthulhu proceeded to tell Grian of his previous life, his time as a highschooler, as a friend of Sam, as a wizard, as a being with powers far greater than any other... of the spell that led him here, to this very spot, talking to his past incarnation’s lover. He sat there, taking in the information, until he spoke.

“But is there any way to get my memories back? I want to know what happened to my other friend.”

“That was just like you, so curious, even though the original you reincarnated himself just so he wouldn’t remember. Alas, there is no way to immediately restore your memories, but I can help you restore your power, & you’ll find a way to remember. Or maybe, you will remember bits & pieces on your own. Only time may tell.”

“So how do we restore my power?”

Cthulhu pulled out an amulet from one of the drawers in the desk. A red stone with gems around it, with a silver chain & handle, holding the gem to the middle.

“This amulet was created by the original Grian, in case his future self ever was robbed of his power. As you complete more of training to become a Watcher, this amulet will let you use more of your power.” He handed it over to Grian.

“Now, with all that said, I believe you must go soon, do you have any further questions?”

“No, thank you. Goodbye, Cthulhu.”

“Farewell, Other Grian.”

He turned & walked out. Voster was waiting for him, along with Taurtis.

“Hello, G. I believe it’s time to go. Come with me.” They led him to a room, where they channeled their power & teleported them home.

“What a long day that was. The sun’s setting, now. It’s time we changed & headed inside for dinner. What would you two like?”

“Oh, um, curry & rice sounds nice.”

“And you, Taurtis?”

“What Grian said.”

“Okay, then. You two change while I make dinner.”

They headed inside, changed, then Taurtis & Grian sat down to had to most awkward talk they had had ever. It was mostly just a series of “oh, shit, we knew each other” & “so how do we remember what happened?”

“Hey you two, dinner’s ready.”

“Okay, Vos!” The two came into the kitchen to eat dinner with their mentor. They soon went to their rooms as the moon came up in the sky, over the many islands.

And so the day ended. How nice.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thinking of making a series of oneshots of Grian’s watcher training & life as a watcher as a sister series to this fic. Tell me if I should do that ( it would update slower than fic, tho )


	6. I keep forgetting that I exist lmao

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Okay so I changed the summary because it was awful

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Writing a nb character interacting with more than two people is a mindfuck to write, I’ll tell you that.
> 
> Also the title isn’t a joke I genuinely forget I exist sometimes

And so the weeks went by, with Grian & Taurtis mastering their training ( and with Grian, mastering his old powers ) , until the fated day arrived. Voster had talked to them the previous day about how they were going to become Watchers. They would go out to the farthest island in their archipelago, where a shrine stood.They would say their pledge to the watchers, then gain their wings, and their horns would stop growing. It wouldn’t take to long, but it was tiring to have so much magic flow though you at once.

The shrine was so peaceful. It was styled with ancient symbols, & made of a mix of obsidian & bedrock. There were trees spindly growing around it. There were birds chirping in the trees, undisturbed by their visitors.

Grian & Taurtis made their way to the front of the shrine, while Voster stayed near the edge of the island, watching them closely. They had both given their elytra to them to watch over in case they needed more time to train with their wings.

They said their pledges. Then...

A burst of magic flowed through them both. It wasn’t unpleasant, in fact, quite the opposite. They felt empowered by the magic. Grian felt his back grow his wings in. He felt his powers bursting beneath him, waiting to be used. Then, as suddenly as the magic came, it stopped. Grian fell to one knee to catch his breath.

Voster walked up them & asked-

“Are you two okay? I know that can be a bit tiring to go through. I can take you back to the house if you’re to tired.”

Grian finally caught his breath.

“Hey, Vos, I’m going to try out my wings before I decide.”

Voster seemed content with that answer, & asked Taurtis if he wanted to do the same. As he answered, Grian lifted of the ground with his wings. They were pretty similar to elytra, so he got the hang of them pretty quickly. Taurtis seemed to be a bit slower on the intake, but he looked fine.

Voster then asked if they wanted to fly home, & they both said yes. Thus, the two ended their first days as watchers. After that, life was mostly the same. They both lived with Voster, who guided them on taking care of worlds, & how to enter them easily. They showed the two a room full of portals to the different worlds that they took care of, though some were currently empty of players. Life was great.

Not all things last forever, unfortunately.

It seemed like a perfectly fine day. Then there was a faint... whistling sound? He asked Voster, who seemed to look worried at the sound.

“This isn’t good. Get Taurtis, now.” They seemed uncharacteristically serious, so Grian left quickly to go find Taurtis. He was outside, looking at the sky. Grian followed his line of sight, & what he saw was terrifying. A small ship was headed towards them. They looked downright murderous. Luckily, they didn’t seem to notice the two yet. Grian quickly grabbed Taurtis’ arm & headed back inside.

They found Voster in the portal room. They quickly hid the room with their magic. “Okay, we need to go in these portals. The Listeners are violent, & will not stop until they find us dead. If they don’t find us, then they’ll fly their ship away.” They were standing in front of a portal which had no players currently, & seemed to be tropical in nature. Grian & Taurtis themselves were standing in front of a portal which was populated with a travelling player system, & a portal with a massive forest separating the two halves of the world inside, respectively. They all stood there, quiet, until they heard a large explosion with rocked their island.

And which happened to send them all tumbling into the portals they were in front of. Grian felt himself hit the ground, hard. His wings ached & his sweater had a tear in it. As he was adjusting to the world, he heard a voice call out-

“Oh, hello, who are you? My name’s Mumbo. What’s yours?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I accidentally refreshed the page & lost two paragraphs while writing ;^;
> 
> Also it’s hermit time!!! Let’s do this


	7. I’m baby! ( but I’m actually an Eldritch god taking the form of a sweater gremlin )

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Note: I cannot write people... hence the ooc tag. Also I haven’t watched season 6 so most of the plot will happen in s7 sry :/
> 
> Also all the hermits are probably ooc just a head’s up
> 
> Also I don’t know how scar or doc were in s6 so I just made them like they are in s7 I hope that doesn’t like... make someone mad or something idk
> 
> If anyone wants to tell me what they were like in s6 I’ll edit the chapter to reflect their personas in that season

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Heads up this one’s pretty dialogue heavy
> 
> And long

“Oh, hello, my name’s mumbo, what’s yours?”

Grian blinked a few times as he gathered his thoughts in his head, then spoke.

“My name is Grian. Do you know what this place is?”

“Hm? This is where we’re living for now. Me & a group of friends call ourselves the hermits. We travel lands & build places for us to live in. Though I’ve never seen you around. Are you new?”

“Yeah, I don’t know how I ended up here, though. I just woke up here & you were there. Do you have any clue?”

Mumbo shrugged & tilted his head to the side.

“I’m just as stumped as you. Maybe our Admin will know. I’ll ask him over my communicator.”

Mumbo typed into his comm & hummed happily when he got a response. He put it away then asked Grian-

“Yeah, he’ll be here soon. I can tell you about our other members if you want, though.”

“That sounds nice.”

The next few minutes were of Mumbo telling him about all the other members of the Hermits. Two in particular interested him. Scar & Doc. The first seemed to be able to use real magic, which he channeled through crystals, and the second was a cyborg, along with being a non-hostile mob.

They were the first people he wanted to meet after meeting the admin.

The admin, whose name was Xisuma, arrived shortly after their conversation.

“Hello, you must be Grian. My name is Xisuma. I’m the admin of this server, as you probably already know.”

He looked at Grian & asked a question.

“So you have no idea how you got here? Interesting. Do you remember your life before you ended up here?”

Grian would rather not confess to being a watcher right now, so he went with a half-truth. Not _exactly_ a lie, but definitely not the whole truth of the matter.

“Yeah, I lived on another server with my friends. I was exploring somewhere away from the group, and the next thing I know, I woke up here.”

“Well, you don’t seem dangerous, so I guess you can join our group, until you can get back to your old server. Follow me.”

He held out his hand for Grian to take. Grian took it, & smiled warmly.

He couldn’t wait to meet the others. X led him (& Mumbo ) to a main district, where there were shops everywhere. There were two people talking to each other near where the three were.

“Scar! Doc! I’d like to introduce you to someone! His names Grian, & he’ll being staying here with us for the time being.”

Scar smiled & held out his hand.

“Hello, my name’s Scar! It’s nice to meet you!”

The other, Doc, was more stoic. He simply nodded & said-

“Hi.”

Grian waved to them.

“I hope we get to know each other more! See you around!”

He turned to X, as the two walked away.

“So, how many more people are there around?”

“There’s a lot, but you’ll meet them all tonight. We’re having a sparring tournament tonight, along with a cookout. We have them every month, but think of it as your welcoming party.”

Grian seemed excited, but then remembered something.

“Where will I stay? I can build a house, but I’ll need time. Where should I stay until then?”

X seemed to be lost in thought for a moment, then looked like he had an idea.

“Why don’t you stay with Mumbo? He’s the one that found you, after all.”

He turned to the moustached lad.

“Would you keep Grian at your base until he gets his own? If you’re okay with that, of course.”

Mumbo nodded.

“Of course I’ll let him stay at my base! It’s big enough for the both of us, after all.”

He turned to Grian.

“Why don’t we head back to my base right now? It’s a few hours until the tournament, anyways.”

Mumbo pulled out an elytra, & wrapped it around his shoulders, like one would a cape.

“Hey, do you need one too? I have another one if you don’t have one on you.”

Grian laughed & shook his head.

“No thanks, I have something better.”

He gently unfurled his wings, which were red, but faded to a deep purple at the tips. There were faint lines on the feathers, reminiscent of markings or symbols. They looked ethereal, as if they faintly glowed.

Mumbo & X seemed surprised by his wings.

Mumbo said-

“I’ve never seen someone with proper wings before besides X. You must be a master at flying!”

X simply said-

“Huh, i haven’t seen wings like that before.”

Grian was amused.

“Well, we can talk about my wings later, but I’m feeling a bit tired. Mumbo, can you show me to your base? Wings are kinda useless with nowhere to fly to, after all.”

That seemed to grab Mumbo’s attention. He recollected himself after blinking a few times, like he was confused if Grian was adressing him.

“Oh, yeah, I’ll show you to my base! Just follow me. See you later, X!”

“I’ll see you two later. Goodbye.” 

X waved & he walked away from the two.

Mumbo leapt into the sky, with the assistance of a rocket.

Grian spread his wings, and flapped his wings until he was at the same height Mumbo was.

And as he followed Mumbo back to his base, he thought of how great it was that he had met new people again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If anyone wants to make fan art I have a tumblr... → https://0-parasol-0.tumblr.com/ @ me stuff I’ll reblog it


	8. *Caramelldansen playing in another room*

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I’m might do a POV switch next chapter... to fill in stuff while s6 happens for Grian I’ll give you some Vos content... also school ended this week so yay
> 
> ( also I got a shiny deino in swsh so I’m havin a good time )

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh yeah I forgot to do this last chapter but happy pride
> 
> ( also happy birthday to Dogtheren! They said I would post this on their birthday so- )

It was time for the event.

The other hermits most likely didn’t know of his appearance yet, so X & Mumbo would introduce him to everyone else after they all came to the center of the shopping district.

Grian was nervous... what if someone knew of his past? What would they think of him then? What if he revealed himself as a Watcher?

...what if one of the other two were there?

It was a lot to think about, pacing around his temporary room in Mumbo’s base. His thoughts were disturbed by a knocking at his door. He whipped his head around to the sound.

“Grian, it’s time to go. Get your stuff & then we’ll fly over, ok?”

“Ok, Mumbo. Just a ‘sec!”

Grian grabbed his stuff. It wasn’t much, only his sword & a backpack of items, like food and building supplies. He opened the door to find Mumbo standing there, waiting for him.

“Hey, I’m all ready to go.”

“Okay then, follow me to where the party is!”

He led Grian out the door by his hand, & took off with his elytra. Grian did the same ( It was funnier when people didn’t realize he had wings ) & followed Mumbo to the party site. He pushed aside all thoughts of being found out for the night.

He landed silently beside Mumbo, where people he hadn’t met before looked at him curiously. He nervously waved at them, before Mumbo introduced him to them.

“Hi everyone, this is Grian. He’s a new member, so you probably haven’t met him before.”

A girl walked up to him. She seemed to be part zombie.

“Hello Grian! My names Cleo! Pleased to meet you!”

The others all introduced themselves to him after Cleo had. X walked up to him after they had all settled down, & talked to him about the party.

“There’s going to be a pvp event & a flight course. They’re optional, but it’ll be a great way to introduce yourself to them.”

“Okay! I’ll probably do the flying course, as, you know...”

X chuckled at that, & left to talk to the other hermits. Grian walked over to where Doc & Scar were, as Mumbo was busy & they were the only other people he knew here.

Scar greeted him, with a wave.

“Hey Grian! How are you enjoying yourself so far?”

“Oh, I’m doing good. How are you guys?”

“I’m good! I’m excited for the pvp tournament! What about you?”

“I’m going to do the flying course! I think you’ll be surprised at how good I am.”

Doc finally spoke up, eyeing Grian with curiosity.

“Oh? Is that a challenge?”

“Only if you want it to be.”

“It’s a challenge, then.”

He talked with them some more, until X announced the start of the pvp tournament. Scar & Doc walked off, & Grian sat, watching the others go at it with the others who had decided not to participate.

Stress, someone who he didn’t get to talk to besides an introduction, won.

He headed over to his two new friends to help them heal up while he waited for the flying course. ( maybe he used some magic to heal them faster, you’d never know. )

After a bit, X called everyone over to the area where the flying course was.

It might have looked hard to anyone who wasn’t used to flying, but to Grian, who flew practically everywhere when he was a Watcher? Pathetically easy. Not that the Hermits needed to know he was a Watcher, of course.

He stood in front of the start line, stretching while the others put on their elytras. Doc walked up to him.

“Aren’t you going to put on your elytra? Or are you so sure of your ability to win that you’re not going to put them on until X calls us all to here?”

He sounded amused at Grian’s apparent lack of preparation. 

“Oh, I don’t _need_ elytra.”

With a flourish, he brought out his wings. Doc stared wide eyed at him, surprised.

“You can fly?”

“Yeah, I’ve been able to for a while. I just put on elytra ‘cause it’s fun to see your reactions to the wings.”

Grian cracked a mischievous smile, & looked around to see if anyone else had noticed his wings. Scar had, & walked up to Grian, clearly very excited.

“Wow, Grian, I didn’t know you had wings! Are they real?”

Grian turned to the both of them.

“Yeah, they’re real, alright! I was the best at flying where I was from!” ( not really, Vos was much better than him, but they wouldn’t have to know that. )

Doc was intrigued at the last part.

“Oh? Where are you from?”

“A server with my friends, called EVO.”

Doc thought there was more to the story, but left it at that, for now.

People started to gather around the start of the race, admiring Grian’s wings. X came & told everyone to get in their places. Grian was ready to **crush** them.

“3...”

Grian & Doc looked at each other, & grinned.

“2...”

Scar watched from the sidelines eagerly, waiting to see how good Grian was at flying.

“1...”

Grian was ready, he had his eyes focused on the goal.

“Go!”

In an instant, Grian bolted off the platform, with only a few people near matching his speed with their rockets. He grinned as he dodged the obstacles with mere ease, as if he was born to fly through the air.

Doc was impressed at how good he was. He knew that Grian had wings, but he had underestimated _how_ good Grian was until this very moment. He could at least keep up speed with him, so he was sure he’d finish second.

Scar was very excited. He had never seen someone with real wings before! Grian was so good at flying, he almost gasped when Grian bolted off the stage like that. He could never hope to catch him if he ever flew away.

Grian won, unsurprisingly, with Doc coming in second. He stretched his wings before putting them away while Doc took his elytra off & stuffed it in his inventory somewhere. Scar walked over to them to congratulate the both of them. Grian spoke first.

“Well, that was fun!”

“You flew through the course! No one could keep up with you!”

Doc looked at Scar, unimpressed.

“I came second, Scar.”

“Yeah, but Grian was at the finish line a full second before you were!”

The three continued to banter & have fun as the night drew closer. Eventually, they all had to head home.

As Grian lied in bed, his thoughts went to Taurtis & Vos.

 _I wonder if they’re doing ok..._ was his last thought before sleep took him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The Scar Grian Doc friendship is underrated & deserves more love
> 
> While writing this chapter I also got a shiny croagunk! Yay me
> 
> ( playing the dlc & Avery kinda cute ngl i wish I had shield)


	9. This world is surprisingly simple, it’s just me who’s bizarre.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Vos makes the most of their situation.
> 
> ( and a new character shows themselves. )

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Vos is in 2nd person, Grian + Hermits are in 3rd person
> 
> Title is from imagination forest, which describes Vos’ backstory well enough ( there are some things that are different. )
> 
> Also Vos’ house is Marry Kozakura’s from the anime ( how does one make a house so pretty?? )

It’s an awful day.

Really, the situation had been horrible. You had a certain feeling about it that things wouldn’t go well.

Now you were alone, in a dense forest, & you had no idea how to contact your... friends? Apprentices? You decided on friends, since that was what they were to you.

You had no idea which world you were in, since the listener attack had disoriented you enough that you didn’t keep track of what portal you were thrown into. All you were sure of was that there were no people in it. You knew what you needed do now, though.

You looked through the woods to find a suitable clearing. If you’re going to build a house, might as well make it comfy to stay in.

You found a spot where a decently sized lake was. In the center, there stood a flat spot of land, which would be nice to build a house on. There were some rocks spaced around the back, which, now that you were looking at it...

You knew which world this was. It was the first one you built, when you were much younger, still just a new watcher. You modeled it after your childhood home, but you never got to add the house in because of certain circumstances. Well, you needed a house, so might as well finish what younger you had started.

You used your magic ( which was intact, thankfully ) to build the house from your childhood.

Looking at it now, you felt a sense of nostalgia. It was quite a nice house, & you hadn’t seen it in quite some time.

Living there all alone was quite lonely, though. Your parents had been gone since before you can remember, leaving only yourself. You lived there for years, by yourself, until...

_“Hi, do you live here? My name’s Casscade!”_

...Let’s think about something else for now.

Now, what to do about food & water? While you ( & by correlation all Watchers ) didn’t need anything but water to live, food was always good, as it helped with your magic. You decided to have pork. You went into the woods to gather herbs & spices. As you did, you now decided to reflect on the events that had led you here.

_You had lived in that house for many summers ( you stopped counting after 145 ). You didn’t age as quickly as others did, so you were about a 12 year old physically by the time you met Casscade. She was the same as you, & you became friends rather quickly._

_A man came one day ( Cthulhu, wearing a disguise ) & asked if you two would like to join him. You both had agreed, & Cthulhu explained that he wanted to create a force of people called the Watchers, who would create worlds & protect them, and you two would be the first._

_You & Cass were excited, so you both created a world above the clouds full of floating islands for all watchers to live in. It was large & expansive, & Cthulhu commended both of you for your creativity. You created some worlds to watch over, along with looking after some pre-existing worlds, while Cass looked after some other worlds that already existed._

_Cthulhu left to gather more Watchers, leaving you two alone. As you left towards the house where you & Cass stayed, something horrible happened. She betrayed you, as was stealing some worlds for her own purposes. As you tried to stop her, she clawed your eyes & left quickly. Cthulhu, thankfully, gave you a mask which would let you see, but it only covered one of your eyes._

As you walked back to your new house after taking a trip down memory lane, you decided to stop focusing on the past for now, & start wondering how you would contact Grian & Taurtis.

How _were_ you going to do that, anyway?

Well, that could wait for later. You decided to focus on yourself first, then your friends second, for the time being. It would be quite lonely, again... but you were used to that.

Why do people always seem to leave you? They never last. You could lament on that fact, but, alas, there are better things to do currently.

You slowly started to get a sense for yourself in the woods. It was nice, being alone, even though you missed your friends. You liked to make tea, generally, as it was what you used to have in this house. You practiced your magic, to keep it from getting rusty, & tried to reach out to your friends, but to no avail. Mostly, though, you admired the night sky, for it was the prettiest thing you’d ever seen.

One day however, you received a knock at the door. You felt a disturbance in the world a few hours ago, and now someone was here. The knock startled you greatly, & you spilled some of your tea.

“Hello, is anyone there? My name’s Xisuma.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Casscade is an important character, though why will be revealed in a later chapter.
> 
> ( also we’re staying is Vos’ POV for the next chapter but switching partway through )


	10. I’m glaring at the abyss of solitude.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Xisuma, talking about the new hermit: he disabled a very complicated redstone machine with a baked potato
> 
> Voster: haha what an idiot
> 
> Voster, realizing it’s Grian: wait-

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I accidentally wrote Vos with like... a hard crush on X. Guess my Bi energy is to much to contain. welp :p
> 
> ( Also how do you write people in character hellllllpppppp )
> 
> Chapter title from “A lump of nonsense”.

Oh, dear. You really weren’t expecting anyone, and you stood there, slightly ( very ) terrified of opening the door. You weren’t sure why, but you suspect it’s because the last time someone knocked on that door, they eventually left you blind. You gathered yourself as best and as quickly you could & made your way to the door, opening it, & putting on a polite smile.

“Hi, Xisuma, my name is Voster. What brings you here?”

“Oh, well, I stumbled upon this house & I wanted to see if anyone was inside. Do you want to talk? It must be quite lonely out here.”

The man, Xisuma, was unlike other players you had seen. He wore armor & a helmet which made him seem something out of a sci-fi movie.

“It does get quite lonely out here, with there being no other people here, & all. I’d love to talk to you, so you can come in.”

You stepped to the side & allowed Xisuma to enter.

“I’ll go make some tea for us, if you’d like.”

Xisuma sat himself on one of the couches, making himself comfortable.

“I’d love that. Your house seems quite nice.”

“Thanks, I built it myself!”

A short pause.

“...Is that spilled tea on the counter?”

Xisuma gestured to the tea which you had forgotten that you spilled. You quickly rushed to get something to clean it up with ( _you were so embarrassed_ )

“Oh my, I completely forgot about that! I’m so sorry, I’ll clean it up right away-“

He laughed lightly, waving somewhat dismissively.

“Oh, it’s fine, I was just wondering how it got there, that’s all.”

How did this man make you so flustered so easily. Not even Cass could do this, make you stutter while resisting every urge to shove your face in your hands and curl into a ball on the floor.

“W-well, when you knocked on the door, you surprised me quite a bit, and...”

You trailed off, not wanting to finish the sentence.

“I see. Why don’t I clean that up while you make some tea for us to chat over?”

“O-ok, I’ll do that.”

The next 10 minutes or so were spent in silence, with X cleaning up tea rather quickly & you trying to regain composure, and also making some tea for the both of you. You finished with the tea, brought it over to where Xisuma sat, & sat across from him. He broke the silence with a question.

“So, Voster, what do you do here?”

“Hmm... I mainly read books from my collection, & walk around for materials to live & make food with. How about you?”

He seemed to perk up a bit at that.

“I’m actually an admin on a server! It’s called Hermitcraft, & we actually received a new member today!”

You tilted your head to the side. You didn’t ask for names, because if it was one of your friends, & you revealed their identity, you had a feeling other ‘hermits’ wouldn’t take it well.

“That’s interesting. What do you guys do?”

“Well, we...”

The two of you talked comfortably for a while. He had to leave, but he’d said he’d be back in a couple of days, so that was something to look forward to.

The time flew by when Xisuma wasn’t there. After all, it wasn’t like there was anything that important on your mind besides him ( and besides contacting your friends, but you’d tried that already and it didn’t work, so you needed to find another method. )

Xisuma came over every 3 days or so, talking mainly about the shenanigans the hermits were up to, but mostly the newest member. By the great old ones, was that man chaotic. Xisuma had left when you started thinking about the new member of the group. Starting a civil war? Disabling a redstone contraption with a potato? Who was this man??

...wait. You know _exactly_ who would do this kind of stuff. Grian. You had to ask Xisuma if you could come over to the server sometime. You wanted to see what Grian was up to.

X, as he had asked you to call him something other than his full name, came over one day, but he looked... sadder than usual. He looked quite emotionally tired. When you asked what was wrong, he laid on the couch, and said it had something to do with his past. You said you were happy to listen, so he started talking.

X was a being of void. He grew up with his brother, EX, and they lived in happiness. But one day, X wanted to leave & experience other worlds, while EX wanted to stay in the void. The two fought over it, & X left. EX wanted to get revenge on his brother for leaving him, so became to X’s location & the two fought violently until EX was banished to a remote part of the nether. Today was the anniversary of that day, so that’s why X was more down today. 

You comforted him the best you could, & asked if he wanted to hear your story as well. He seemed interested, so you told him everything ( minus Grian & Taurtis’ names ) & X seemed somewhat surprised that you were a Watcher. He asked why you didn’t just fly or teleport back to where you normally lived. You simply said the islands were to far away to fly to, & people had attacked your base, so you didn’t really have anywhere to return.

X understood that feeling, so both of you sat & talked about whatever came to mind until X left, happier than when he had came in.

X came over one day, so you decided now was the time to ask if you could visit the hermits some day. X replied that this ‘season’ was ending but you could join the next one. You accepted the invitation. 

That day was 2 weeks ago, and now you were going to introduce yourself to the others. You cleaned up your wings, & made sure your mask was on properly before you left. You were dressed in a black turtleneck with a white, rather nice looking vest on top of it, & white pants & black almost knee high boots ( you also wore white gloves, that faded to black at the fingertips. You always wore them, because of Cass. ) You flew over to where X had told you to be, and braced yourself for the others. You didn’t recognize most of them, but a man in a red sweater you did.

Grian.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry if this chapter seems more rushed than the others I couldn’t work on it for most of the week
> 
> Also y’all mind if I have Vos & X end up in a relationship?? I’m on the fence about shipping personas but a persona & oc is fine for me just wondering if everyone else would mind


	11. Not a chapter

Hi! It’s Parasol here. Due to circumstances that prevented me from working on chapter 11 all week, I’m unable to post it at my regular time, Sunday. Therefore, the chapter will be posted next week. To compensate for this, I will make Chapter 11 longer than the others, as well as post art on my tumblr ( https://0-parasol-0.tumblr.com/ ) pertaining to this work. ( a ref for Vos & a wing ref for the three watchers I focus on. )

Sorry about the delay.

-Parasol


	12. “Spring cleaning”

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> All the hermits: oh hi new person
> 
> Vos & Grian, pretending they haven’t met before at all: ye ah,,,,,
> 
> Also some POV switches. That too.
> 
> Two new POVs enter the ring, but who are they?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Have you noticed the pattern in the chapter names yet? Guess in the comments, I’ll tell you if you’re right
> 
> Also I’m not sure if this is actually longer than my other chapters? But it makes up for that in pure plot content
> 
> Title refers to the don’t starve song.

Grian was trying not to freak out right now. His mentor, the one who had taught him all his magic & flight abilities, was standing in front of him. Voster, a greater flier than even him. Grian was so excited to see them again, but he had to pretend like they had just met. He walked up to Vos after X had introduced them as his friend, & waved.

“Hi, my names Grian! I’m glad to have you here!” He put a finger to his mouth in a shushing motion, as conspicuously as he could.

“I’m glad to be joining you! I’ve heard about you guys, so I’m excited to join you all.” They made a slight nodding motion. _Good_.

The two of them made small talk, pretending they had just met, and had not in fact been missing each other for a long while, & after Vos made their way to the other hermits, introducing themselves to them.

Doc, who had just arrived through the portal, walked over to Grian, while Scar excitedly greeted Vos.

“Hey, Grian, who’s the new hermit? You know them?”

The two of them, along with Scar, had formed a friendship during the time of season six. He even trusted them enough to tell them that he was a Watcher! But that was a story for another time.

He really didn’t want to tell the others he had known Vos out in the open, but Scar & Doc were different, so he simply replied-

“I’ll talk to you & Scar about it later.”

Doc seemed to get the message and wandered off to go say hi to Vos. Some hermits started to leave, having said hi to Vos, so Grian did the same, and flew to the jungle, already having ideas for a new base in mind.

—V-o-s—

You had introduced yourself to the Hermits already, so you left to make a base, one in the sky. You felt more comfortable there, after all. You decided to build it over the ocean, as you hadn’t really interacted with one outside of monitoring worlds for Cthulhu.

It was nice to be around people. Your weekly meetings with your ~~crush~~ friend X were fun, but you wanted to see what the other hermits were like. It had been so long since you talked to other people besides Watchers, it was a nice change.

Speaking of watchers, you still couldn’t contact Cthulhu. You tried, but it seemed that subset of your magic wasn’t entirely working yet. Cass was always better at that kind of stuff, anyway. 

You needed to talk to Grian soon. You had questions for him, and he surely had questions for you. With that in mind, you started to build your base, making the decision to talk with Grian tomorrow. 

—G-r-i-a-n— 

He met with Doc and Scar at a secluded place in the jungle, a small space that couldn’t easily be found by others, as he had masked it with his magic. They all had had some tea, while Grian started the conversation. 

“So I’m sure you’re wondering what my relation to Voster is.” 

Scar & Doc looked up at that. Scar spoke first, then Doc. 

“Well, yeah, you seemed like you know them.” 

“Grian, how _do_ you know them? They don’t look like anyone you’ve described to us.” 

He had previously described how Taurtis and someone else from his memories looked. He still couldn’t remember, but maybe something would trigger it. 

“That’s... I... might have forgotten to tell you about what they looked like. They’re my mentor watcher.” 

Doc seemed to finally have something ‘click’ in his brain. 

“Ah, that one. I remember them.”

“But why haven’t they reached out to you with their magic yet? You said their magic is much more versatile then yours.” Scar questioned.

“Hmm. I’m not sure. I’ll talk to them tomorrow about that.”

At that, Grian invited the two over to stay the night.

—?-?-?-?—

Somewhere far away, a being with claws of night Observes this world. She turns to a figure behind her, who we cannot see.

“Say, my turncoat, why don’t we wreak some havoc?” She laughs, with a sense of grandiose.

“Oh, who am I kidding, it’s not as if you can say no with that mask of yours on, anyway.”

The figure, who we still can vaguely see, nods, and walks away.

—?-?-?—

Elsewhere, in a world with a mighty forest, a human prepares for a journey, and to finally make amends.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey peeps I lost the charger to my drawing pen & couldn’t get a new one until Friday so I couldn’t post art this week! Sorry about that


	13. Updatee

I’m going to change the update schedule to, at the most, every two weeks, as I just can’t keep up with managing my life and updating this fanfic as regularly as is, so the next chapter will posted next Sunday, with a new chapter every other Sunday after that until I have more time to focus on this. 

Thanks for understanding!


	14. What can I say when the truth comes out ( of my very own mouth )

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Vos and Grian talk, essentially.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I’m not sure what the next chapters should be about. Tell me in the comments what you want next. One of the mystery POVs from last chapter? Vos or Grian? Tell me I’m indecisive rn
> 
> ( title lyric from lemon demon )

It was the morning after Vos had joined the hermits. Doc and Scar had left a little while ago, which left Grian alone with his thoughts.

He would definitely have to talk to Vos today, but something else bothered him. He had a vague feeling ( or maybe he was unconsciously remembering something ) that something was... off. Not here, exactly, but elsewhere he sensed a disturbance.

There wasn’t much he could do on his own, as his locked memories held all the more powerful magic he had, so he decided to talk about it with Vos today.

—V-o-s—

You had messaged Grian to come over to your base so you two could talk today. While you waited for a response, you looked around your base. It was quite quaint. 

On a large floating island over the sea, there was a nice cottage that took up the center space of the island. There were a few decorations outside, such as a cherry tree, a small bench beside it, & a small river that became a waterfall as it fell of the island, but the inside was unfinished.

You decided to get started on that. You placed some essential decorations, such as a bed, kitchen appliances, and more stuff in the bathroom. Making a lot things with magic took a bit more out of you than other kinds of magic you used, so you were resting on the bench outside. Suddenly, your communicator beeped.

It was a message from Grian.

‘Hey Vos! I just got your message! Is it okay if I come over at 2?’

You sent a message back.

‘...Grian, it’s already 2.’

You detected a surge in magic from Grians general area, which means he’ll probably be here soon.

—G-r-i-a-n—

Grian rushed out the door as he used his magic to accelerate how fast he flew. It was hard as he didn’t know what Vos’ base looked like, but he could sense their magic signature so he followed that.

He arrived at Vos’ base quickly, which looked quite nice already. Though, Vos had most likely used magic to build the house, as they always used magic for things like that. He slowed down and landed softly on the mint grass that covered the island. He spotted Vos on a bench.

“Hi, Vos!”

They jolted & looked towards you.

“O-oh, hey! I didn’t realize you’d be here so soon. Come in and we can talk.”

They both headed inside the small house ( considering Grian planned to build a mansion ) and sat on a couch. Vos spoke first.

“Are you hungry or anything? I can make something if you want.”

“I’d like some steak, please.”

Vos went into the kitchen and made steak ( where do they get that stuff so quickly? ), and brought out two plates to a small counter in front of the couch. They sat down beside him. After they ate, Vos started the conversation.

“So anyways, Grian, what did you want to talk about?”

Might as well ask what you want answered most first.

“Have you been able to contact Taurtis lately? I haven’t been able to.”

“I haven’t been able to either. How have you been doing on your magic?”

“Well, I’ve been able to do a lot of things, but most of the magic related to combat is locked behind my memories, which I can’t remember, so matter how hard I try.”

Vos looked mildly interested in that, but said nothing.

“Do you have anything else you want to ask?”

“Should I tell my friends about who I am? I didn’t want to lie to them, but they wouldn’t have believed me if I told them when we met... I also might’ve told Doc and Scar about you being my mentor.”

“Well, I would tell your friends. They’d always support you, right? You can tell them about me, too. I wouldn’t want a secret coming out at an inopportune time. And about Doc and Scar, if you trust them that much, you three must be close. Can I meet them sometime? They seem nice.”

Grian perked up at that.

“Of course you can meet them! I’ll ask them next time we meet. Oh, I have one more question for you.”

“Hmm? What is it?”

“Who are the listeners?”

Vos widened their eyes and seemed to pale a bit at the question. They looked away from Grian and sighed.

“I knew you’d ask this eventually. I’ll tell you.

They closed their eyes and faced Grian.

“The listeners are a group that runs around destroying worlds for various reasons, but most seem to be to spite the Watchers. They force people to join them by using masks to control their minds, but some join willingly, for power or any other reason. They’ve never made such a direct attack on the aether like the one we experienced, however.”

Vos opened their eyes and looked away after their speech.

That was a lot of info to take in. Grian looked a bit shaken by the explanation. They’d really do such awful things to others?

“Will they come for us here?”

“I’m not sure. We should keep watch, just in case.”

Grian stood up.

“Well, I should be working on my base. I’ll talk to you later, Vos!”

Vos smiled and waved.

“Goodbye, Grian!”

—?-?-?-?—

A woman watches over the conversation through a magic lens and frowns.

“Well, now they’re onto us. I think we’ll continue as planned, though, hehe.”


	15. Caught off guard, drowning in cranberries, is the brazen hooligan

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mystery POV journeys through the woods as they become not so mysterious
> 
> ( title lyric from Kilmer by Niru Kajitsu )
> 
> Mentions of what happened in KOV but I tried to make some things as vague as I could

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fun fact about me:
> 
> Yesterday was August 15th, my favorite day of the year! I even went to Dazecon this year! ( Dazecon is a virtual kagerou project convention )
> 
> Also, I love worldbuilding, as you can see by this chapter.

The forest was dense and thick, blocking out any sunlight from reaching the ground below. The trees were massive, fantastical, twisting up into the clouds.

It was a breathtaking sight to behold. You had never seen anything like this before in your travels. ( or ever, really. ) 

You were on your way to make amends with friends. The reason why is... complicated. 

After Grian ( not gree-on, anymore ) made the deal with Cthulhu, you were in a medieval kingdom with him and Taurtis. After Grian went insane, you were transported to the forest you were in currently, next to a small house full of essentials. It gave you time to reflect on your actions.

You were not a good person. You were never a good person. You’d thought it was funny when Grian was taken by the humanoid rat but now the thought of what you’d done made you hate your past self a degree you didn’t think possible.

Back in highschool, too. You’d killed people with little remorse, and you were highly codependent on Taurtis. The moment he left all moral inhibitors left you. The things you’d done to Grian...

Speaking of him, he was your main reason for making this journey anyways. Not that you didn’t want to apologize to Taurtis, but you felt that you’ve done worse things to Grian than him.

You also didn’t know where Taurtis was. You could track Grian, but you had no leads on Taurtis.

The more you walked, the colder it got. Good thing you wore sufficiently insulating clothing. The trees also gained darker bark, and had a light covering of snow on the pines. You had entered the Taiga. Not many would make this Journey, as this place was one the most unforgiving to inexperienced travelers, but you’d been in the wilds for some years now, so your senses were more heightened than before. Especially your hearing, which was already quite good, could now sense even faint sounds from a mile away.

Your thoughts were cut short by a sharp bark. A wolf attack. Wolves in the Taiga were very territorial, and entering their domain meant that you’d challenged them to a fight. You could deal with one wolf, but several were a challenge. You decided to climb and make your way through the trees, as the wolves wouldn’t stop chasing you until you were out of their space. 

You made your way up the first tree, just in time to see the wolves enter your view. This was the tricky part, now. You had to climb through, making no mistakes, as the wolves tried to get to you.

Thankfully, your status as a hybrid rabbit made you rather good at leaping, so you had little to no issue jumping and landing. After some time ( and a few close calls ) you’d made it out of the Taiga.

Travelling again, you’d passed by some villages, some bee colonies, nothing of note, really, until you’d found what you were looking for.

The jungle. You could see the start of megabases, though you never had such thing for yourself. ( you’d lived in an apartment then became a nomad. ) But you were really here for Grian. You could sense his presence here, and with your experience in occult magics, it wasn’t hard to sense where he was. Now all you’d have to do was find him and apologize.

Sadly, as rabbits cannot fly, you were unable to swoop over to him, instead making your way towards him using your agile skills.

You had traveled for about 20 minutes when something red flew overhead. You looked up, and there he was. He was as fast as a bullet, expertly flying through the trees. Though, if he was this close to the ground, he surely would land soon, so you followed him closely. And soon enough, he landed in his base ( though it was more of a mansion ) and you were ready to make amends. Right here, right now.

“Hi, Grian.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If anyone’s confused as to why Sam remembered everything and Taurtis didn’t, Sam’s work with the occult made him more resistant to this kind of magic than Taurtis.
> 
> Also cliffhanger oooo


	16. Y’aw... it’s rewind time

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Grian remembers ( not all of it at once, however )
> 
> Sam is, decidedly, not an asshole.
> 
> ( starting from here, the story diverges from “canon”. )

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Meme titles are back again bois,,, but for how long? Idk
> 
> ( also am now helsknight simp evil hermit clones are my lifeblood )
> 
> Also plot advances some more,,, kinda want to start to wrap this up before school comes and Crushes me with work
> 
> ( also happy birthday Ryota Mitarai for being one of my favorite dr3 characters )

Grian was having a good day. A really good day, actually!

He’d made plans to hang out with doc and scar ( and promised himself to invite vos next time so doc could look at his mask ), talked to the other architects about “Sahara 2: Redstone boogaloo” ( sadly, Mumbo and Iskall did not agree with his awesome name idea ), and now he was working on his mansion.

Or, at least, he was _supposed_ to.

He didn’t see the person ( who looked like those guys in westerns that always make the floorboards creak when they enter the salon doors- less cowboy, more of hunter look really- but I digress. ) sneak up on him. He was prepared to ask him a question, but before he could-

“Hi, Grian.”

It was hearing that voice again, seeing those rabbit ears, that unlocked most of his memories. It was as if a switch had been turned on, lighting a completely pitch room.

Grian, understandably, not knowing how to handle such stress of remembering everything at once, passed out.

—S-a-m—

...Whoops.

In your defense, you didn’t expect him to drop like a brick being thrown to the ground! The least you could do is help him get to his bed and make sure he was okay before talking to anyone else who could live here.

You carried him on your shoulder ( quite easily, actually ) and headed inside his mansion, where there was a small room sectioned off as temporary bedroom. Lucky for you.

While you waited for him to wake up, you might as well look around the place. It was a large mansion ( where and how did Grian learn to build like this? ) with plenty of villagers around in what looked to be the main room, styled with an item sorter and other things. While you were looking around, something beeped in Grian’s pocket. You cautiously took it out of his pocket and looked at the message. It was from someone named ‘Doc’.

‘Doc: Hey Grian, where are you. We’re supposed to meet with Scar in 30.’

You figured it wouldn’t be that bad to let the others know of your existence, since Grian put them in his contacts ( he only put people he trusted in there, you knew from experience. )

‘Grian: Um, hi, Grian’s currently passed out. I don’t know when he’ll wake up so if you could come over that’d be nice’

You received a response almost immediately.

‘Doc: and who is this? Surely you must have your own communicator.’

Who _were_ you to Grian? You hadn’t seen him in a long time, and though you couldn’t remember what happened after he made the deal with Cthulhu, surely you two were still on good terms? If you _had_ ruined your friendship with Grian somehow, you were going to punch your past self in the face.

You decided to settle on old friend for now. It wasn’t entirely wrong.

‘Grian: I’m an old friend of Grian’s, and I decided to stop by to say hi, when I found him like this. Please come over and help, I would appreciate it.’

‘Doc:...fine. Wait for me outside the mansion.’

He clearly didn’t believe you, but that’s fine. You just wanted Grian to be safe, for now.

Only a few minutes later, two people arrived. One looked like a cross between a robot and creeper, and the other looked like a weird mayor. The mayor spoke first.

“Hi, I presume you’re Sam? My names Scar, nice to meet you!”

He seemed more friendly than the other, who you assumed was doc. Doc spoke after Scar.

“He wanted to know where I was going. My names Doc, as you’ve probably assumed by now. Bring us to Grian, please.”

He looked like he was suspicious that you were responsible for this ( which, like, technically... ) so you quickly led them inside the mansion to where Grian was.

Doc quickly checked Grian’s condition while you made light talk with Scar. He talked about a shopping district and being the mayor of it ( which explained the outfit ) and asked how you got here, to which you simply replied that you traveled a long journey, and were kind of exhausted. Docs voice took you and Scar out of the conversation you two were having.

“He’s fine, just needs to rest for a bit. Tell me if anything changes, using his communicator. Me and Scar will talk to Xisuma about the possibility of you joining.”

Doc turned to walk out of the room. Scar waved as he left and said “Talk to you later, Sam!”

Now all that was left to do was wait for Grian to wake up.

—G-r-i-a-n—

Highschool. The mob. Killing people ruthlessly. Forced to be another person. It felt real, but it didn’t happen to him. It happened to past him. Gah, why was this so confusing? It was at least starting to get better, though. He could at least make _some_ sense of what happened to his other self.

There was some deep, locked away memories that even Sam’s presence didn’t fully unlock, though he could get a small gist of what happened in them.

Grian now remembered Sam as being... more murderous than what he currently seemed to be like, but he seemed to have moved on from his rather concerning dependence on Taurtis to keep his sanity in check. He also looked like he’d softened a bit in terms of personality. That was good.

Dwelling on the past was nice, if not rather weird considering they all joined the mafia and actually killed people, but Grian felt like he would wake up soon.

Grian kept a mental note of the questions he wanted to ask Sam, and slowly opened his eyes. He noticed he was in the spare bedroom of his mansion, while he constructed the main one.

Sam was also there, and looked to have noticed that you woke up. He asked Grian a couple questions about if he was doing okay, but he was fine. He decided to start talking about his memories with Sam.

“Hey, this might sound weird, but I actually just remembered you.”

“Wait, how? As far as I know, amnesia isn’t that bad.”

That made Grian laugh.

“No, no, you see...”

The next 20 minutes or so were spent explaining his situation while Sam occasionally asked questions.

“So anyway, do you want to stay here and meet the other hermits? It’d be nice to have someone else join the team!”

Sam closed his eyes in deep thought for a moment.

“Yeah, alright. I have another question for you, I’ve been meaning to ask you this for a while, actually. Do you... know where Taurtis is? I looked for him before finding you, but I didn’t see him anywhere.”

“That’s the thing... I don’t know, either. Me and Vos were looking for him before we found each other, but we didn’t find him either.”

Sam and Grian looked at each other with unease. Just where could their friend be.

“Well, Sam, maybe when you meet the other hermits you can tell them about Taurtis. I’m sure they’ll be able to find him!”

And with that, Sam and Grian set out to the shopping district.

—?-?-?-?—

A woman wearing a mask covered in eyes looks out from a tower in a castle. She is talking to someone, but we do not know who. The sun is high in the sky.

“It’s just so... boring, isn’t it? All of them, in there little world, I’m sure they haven’t felt what it’s like to go through something awful. And they’re no doubt going to try to stop us...”

A cruel sneer appears on her face.

“So why don’t we show them what happens when you mess with us?”

A pale blue magical force comes out from her hands.

A tower appears in the shopping district.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just so everyone knows, I put up some character refs up on tumblr!


	17. Alskfcienakcjdbcnxjsbdcos

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Update.

Posting this early because I don’t want to disappoint you guys by waiting until the actual update time. I have no motivation to work on this currently, and I’m also feeling burnt out by this, so this fic will take a hiatus until I feel like I can work on it again.

When I do resume work, the update schedule will be more sporadic, but updates will never be more than a month apart from each other.

Thanks in advance for understanding.

-Parasol


	18. Okay this isn’t technically a chapter but I legit have no more motivation to continue this

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Guess what, fuckers, it’s me.

Yeah okay so I have... absolutely no motivation to work on this anymore. I’m still going to write a sequel, but this will be the last chapter in O/AR ( also, this fic is absolutely horrid compared to my more recent stuff. )

I’m just going to bullet point what happened next, is that okay? I’m really sorry it had to end like this, but... Y’know.

• Sam talks with the other hermits while Vos Gri and Doc prepare to go to Cass’ base ( and yes, the villain is Cass. Quite obvious, no? )

• Magic training montage-ish thing

• Some filler between Sam and the other hermits where he tells them his long journey here

• Anyways they ( basically all the hermits ) get to Cass’ base

• Before they get to the base proper Cass send the masked follower away ( because the sequel needs to tie in _somehow_ )

• Some battles with listeners while Vos makes his way up to find Cass

• Vos tries to get Cass to come back to the good side

• But it’s too late. They engage in battle

• Cass’ mask falls off during the battle

• Cass gets mortally wounded and gets held by Vos, who’s in tears at killing their only friend

• As she dies she remembers their childhood together and how good of friends they used to be ( and it’s heavily implied that they both had romantic feelings for each other )

• Specifically she remembers one time where they were in a field together. It was the last time she felt true happiness. She smiles and dies, finally content with her life.

• Fuck that made _me_ sad and I was the one who wrote it

• After the emotional downpour that was that scene Vos takes Cass and gives them a proper burial in their childhood home. Meanwhile the hermits get home and recollect themselves and patch each other up.

• Vos lives in their childhood home and is currently taking a break from Watcher business. Grian is vibing along with the rest of the hermits. Sam goes back to being a vagabond or something idk

So anyways that’s basically what I had planned. I’m planning on writing a sequel focusing on Helsknight, Ex, and NPG that’s a mix between serious and light-hearted. Idk when I’ll write it but it’ll be on my alt ( where I will be hosting all my Minecraft rpf work from now on, such as DreamSMP content. ) para2ol. I’m also transporting this work to my alt.

Thanks for the support. It really meant a lot to me, as this was my first fanfic. I’m not as in the hermitcraft fandom as I was in May, but I still love it.

**Author's Note:**

> Comments & Criticism appreciated!
> 
> ( Tell me if there is anything I should tag. )


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